Graeme Crawford, Founder and CEO of Crawford McMillan
Founder, Crawford McMillan

Graeme Crawford

Data strategy for PE-backed companies

We don't sell dashboards. We help you sell your company for more.

What we do

Crawford McMillan helps mid-market PE-backed companies fix the data problems that erode valuation, stall AI initiatives, and create transaction risk. We work with operating partners and portfolio company leadership teams to get data diligence-ready, not in multi-year programs, but in quarter-scale sprints.

Background

20 years at Fortune 100 scale.
Now focused on mid-market PE.

IBM Global Services

Operational troubleshooter. Designated fixer for hostile recoveries and severely damaged implementations. At 24, rebuilt an entire day of lost data for a major UK insurer.

Crawford McMillan

Now I bring that same infrastructure rigor to companies in the $25M-$200M revenue range where PE sponsors assume the data capability exists, but it doesn't. The gap between what Fortune 100 companies have and what mid-market portfolio companies actually run on is where value gets left on the table.

How we work with PE
01

Data Readiness Assessment

2-3 week sprint identifying the single biggest data constraint blocking valuation or AI readiness. Clear picture of what needs to fix and in what order.

02

Value Creation Sprint

Hands-on data infrastructure work mapped to VCP line items throughout the hold. Each sprint has a defined scope, timeline, and measurable outcome.

03

Buy-side Data Diligence

Evaluate a target's data infrastructure as part of commercial or technical diligence. Know what you're buying before the LOI.

Why this matters now
30,000+ unsold portfolio companies globally. Median hold period stretched to 6.1 years.
0.4x average multiple erosion when data issues surface during a transaction
7.4x vs 7.0x EBITDA multiple for sellers with data quality assessments (GF Data). On a $50M company, that is $2M.
The Podcast

PE Data Guy

Conversations with deal teams, operating partners, and portfolio company leaders about the data problems that kill deals, slow exits, and destroy value.

Working together

I work the data infrastructure layer. Growth operators, fractional executives, and commercial operating partners work the revenue and margin layer. We are not competing. We are solving different parts of the same value creation plan.

When portfolio companies can't produce clean channel attribution, reliable unit economics, or reconciled financials, that is my problem to fix. When the data is clean and the growth strategy needs an operator, that is yours.

Referrals go both ways. If you see data mess in a portfolio company, I want that call. If I see a company that needs commercial or operational expertise, you get that call.